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The Morning Bell: Teacher raise tax & student walkout held

Good Friday morning! It's been nearly two months since President Donald Trump announced he would bring an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, putting it on Congress to make changes to the nation's immigration laws.

But with the DACA expiration just four months away, and Congress leaving for a winter recess in December, hundreds of students at Santa Fe South High School staged a walkout yesterday to call on Congress to act.

"I walk out of school for a clean DREAM Act for my friends, family and some of the teachers at Santa Fe South," said Dunia Dominguez, a junior at Santa Fe South.

You can read my coverage from the protest here, and also watch a video above.

--A temporary Oklahoma City income tax to raise money for teacher pay increases is a step closer to being placed on the ballot as advocates turned in petitions to city hall on Thursday, claiming they had collected more than enough signatures to call a vote.

The proposal calls for a 0.5 percent income tax to raise about $50 million per year.

The Oklahoman's William Crum has the story of yesterday's petition drop off, which you can read here. Here's his story from earlier this year on the motivation behind the group's effort to use an income tax to pay for school teacher and staff raises.

--Veterans Day is Saturday and schools across the state are celebrating this week, including Barnsdall Schools, which tweeted some photos from its Veterans Day assembly on Thursday.

--HAZING INVESTIGATION IN BIXBY: Police and the Bixby school board say they are investigating amid reports of a possible hazing and assault of a student at a football team event, reports the Tulsa World.

Members of the school board held a special meeting on Thursday evening at which they met behind closed doors with their attorney about “a pending confidential investigation of an incident involving certain Bixby High School students.”

(Story continued below...)

--SCHOOL FUNDING CASE: The Oklahoma Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Oklahoma Tax Commission needs to recalculate how all Oklahoma school districts receive motor vehicle tax distributions, not just the eight districts that sued the commission over how funds were being distributed.

But due to recent legislative changes, it wasn’t immediately clear how the ruling applies to the way the tax commission distributes those tax dollars going forward. Thursday’s ruling doesn’t order the commission to undo or rectify any past incorrect distributions to school districts.

--OPIOID CRISIS: Education was the most common theme for a solution to the state's mounting opioid crisis, officials said Wednesday during an addiction summit held in Enid, reports EnidNews.com.

Members of OSU Center for Health Sciences, law enforcement officials, state and local leaders, and policy makers met for the Addiction in Rural Oklahoma Summit at Central National Bank Center. The summit was one of three across the state. One was held Tuesday in Lawton and another was planned for Thursday in Durant

Immigrant youth and students at Santa Fe South High School stage a walkout and rally calling on Congress to pass a clean Dream Act on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

Ben Felder

Ben Felder is an investigative reporter for The Oklahoman. A native of Kansas City, Ben has lived in Oklahoma City since 2010 and covered politics, education and local government for the Oklahoma Gazette before joining The Oklahoman in 2016....
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